Bombay-based Blitz group's morninger The Daily to change hands

After months of speculation that the Bombay-based Blitz group's money-losing morninger The Daily was going to change hands, the newspaper finally front-paged details of the sale to a business group - Calcutta's B.G. Pasari, Delhi's Lalit Suri and Bombay paper merchant Basudeo Goenka.

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August 31, 1986

ISSUE DATE: August 31, 1986

UPDATED: February 10, 2014 17:20 IST

Friendly Foes

When good friends turn enemies, they turn into the bitterest of foes. For decades, Basanta Kumar Biswal, once called "Super chief minister",
and Orissa Chief Minister J.B. Patnaik have been family friends. But
last month, after Patnaik took back Biswal's arch-enemy Niranjan Patnaik into the ministry, Biswal raised the banner of revolt against
"Patnaik's misrule" and despatched 31 MLA's to Delhi to press for
Patnaik's ouster. Said Patnaik: "This revolt is for power and that is
why I am shocked." Retorted Biswal: "It is not a revolt. It is a save
Congress(I) campaign."

Biswal's turnaround began in April when
AICC(I) General Secretary T. Anjiah showed dissidents Patnaik's
confidential report that Biswal was not his choice for the Kendrapara
by-election: Biswal contested but lost. But Niranjan Patnaik won favour
by orchestrating intra-party support for Patnaik in the wake of The Illustrated Weekly story on his alleged sexcapades.

Patnaik has long been facing dissidence from a faction led by state party chief Nityananda Mishra but the defection of Biswal has created total
confusion. The party is now split into three factions: pro-Patnaik, Anti Patnaik and anti-both Biswal and Patnaik. With the Government and the
party virtually paralysed, the Opposition's street campaign to oust
Patnaik has received a new and unexpected filip.

Bulldog Changes Masters

The Daily and (inset) Karanjia: Financial millstone

On August 9, after months of speculation that the Bombay-based Blitz group's money-losing morninger The Daily was going to change hands, the newspaper finally front-paged details of the sale to a business group - Calcutta's B.G. Pasari, Delhi's Lalit Suri and Bombay paper merchant Basudeo Goenka.

For Russy Karanjia, its dapper founder editor, it was the end of a dream - a dream that became a financial millstone. Launched on March 23, 1981, The Daily, with a bulldog as mascot and "We are on your side" as maxim, made a mark with its hard hitting city reporting.

But with no distinctive niche in the morning paper slot, mounting debts and little advertising revenue. Karanjia decided to sell almost two years ago. There was no shortage of buyers - from Swraj Paul, a group of Gulf-based NRI's to Sanjay Dalmia. But it is the newly-formed Blitz Enterprises Private Limited that will try to revive the sick tabloid.

Pasari, the dominant partner (with 60 per cent stock) and Suri (with 40 per cent) will take over nearly Rs 2 crore of the paper's Rs 4 crore debt and plan to bring out new editions from Delhi, Calcutta and Bangalore. The search is now on for a new editor and a new image for India's only tabloid morninger.

Shot Gun Drill

Injured firemen and (inset) Ranga: Night fever

A late night drill ordered by Chandigarh's Deputy
Commissioner and Chief Fire Officer R.K. Ranga injured a dozen-odd
firemen, including himself. The zealous officer (the firemen allege the
influence of drink) gave the command literally from the barrel of a gun.

The half-asleep firefighters had to jump from a 10-foot high
fire engine or get shot. The final tally: three multiple fractures, four broken legs and the rest had broken toes. Then it was the officer's
turn.

Next morning, he was served with suspension orders. Efforts are now on to save the officer from the deleterious effects of the
night fever. Besides sympathetic fellow officers, former Union minister
Dalbir Singh, Congress(I) MP from Haryana and Ranga's father-in-law has
thrown his weight to get him off the hook.

Disbanded Drive

Eviction squad at Pandey's house: Thwarted effort

Well begun is half done. So thought the Estate Department
officials of Uttar Pradesh, when on the first day of their eviction
drive they succeeded in removing 10 former ministers and legislators who were neither paying rents nor vacating the bungalows allotted to them
while they were holding government offices. The drive was meticulously
planned on a Sunday to thwart the defaulters from securing stays from
court.

But one ex-MLA proved that she was one up on the
officials. Before the eviction squad could reach Suman Lata Dixit's (now Pandey) house, she summoned a pandit and began satyanarain ki katha. The squad decided to keep away till the puja was over. But the Estate Department's efforts were thwarted when three
victims - former Congress(I) strongmen - Gulab Sehra, M.A. Ansari and
C.L. Chowdhury, pulled the right strings at the Centre to get the drive
called off, the squads disbanded and the files returned to their
closets.

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